Week 20: November 11, 2013

Heyyoo!

Just so you know, there's a deaf Lithuanian lady screaming into Skype next to me so I am semi-incapable of writing anything that's comprehensible. So sorry, haha.

It's been a lovely week. Let's start off with exchanges.

Sister Lubberink (she's Dutch, so that's fun) came with Sister Ramos from Imanta, Latvia to do an exchange. Sister Ramos had been in Klaipeda but got emergency transferred to Imanta. Anyways, I went with Sister Lubberink for the day. She's walking sunshine, pretty much. Seriously, she's the nicest person ever and her English is great, so there wasn't any problems with communication. It was actually really cool for me to see her throughout the day as she talked to tons of people because she struggles pretty hard with Russian. She goes home after this transfer and she still has a hard time with basic stuff that I struggle with too. But what's awesome about her is that she doesn't even need to be that good at Russian because she's such a happy person that you can tell people genuinely love talking to her. Funny story that happened: there's this pedestrian bridge that we live by where, when you walk across it, you can see the bus stop that you're walking to because it's across the street. I don't really know how to put that into words. Anywho, we saw the other sisters waiting at the stop as we were walking across the bridge and we saw that they were talking to a guy and then they got on a bus and as we were walking to the bench that they had just left, the guy passed us. He had a Book of Mormon in his hand so Sister Lubberink said hi and asked him if he was gonna read it. It was pretty clear from how he smelled that he was drunk, but also there was something about the way he was acting that told us he was also on some pretty hardcore drugs. Sister Lubberink testified of the Book of Mormon because she's great and then he asked us where we were from and I told him America. For some reason that made him so happy. Only Emma Brague, Thyme, and Lauren Sasine will understand this, but he made the little sigh and grin that the king in the Esther movie made when she said that her heart was his. Haha so at that point, he just went for a hug and I froze. I wasn't trained for moments like that so I just patted his back! So funny and extremely awkward. Is it bad that I regret nothing? Just kidding. Kind of.

We also got to go to Kaunas for district conference on Saturday and Sunday! Kaunas is the most nationalistic Lithuanian area, which essentially means that they don't take very kindly to Russian speakers. We definitely saw that on Saturday when we went to the Maxima (grocery store) and asked for something in English and the lady was like, "Good morning, this is Lithuania, not America. You need to learn how to speak Lithuanian." <---it was a lot scarier and mean than that looks. Haha but it was super fun as well. A few members from all the different branches in Lithuania came and it was fun meeting them. There's a bunch of really cool members that I'm sad I won't be able to serve with because they are in the cities that Russian speakers don't go to. One lady stopped me when I was walking out and asked me where I'm from. I told her Idaho and she was like, "Really? You look like you're from somewhere in Europe." So there's that. She also said something really nice! She kind of tilted her head and then said, "I like you. You look like a really pleasant person." I love Lithuanians and their honesty most of the time. 

Speaking of which, here's a random fact: Lithuanian doesn't have any curse words, so they just attack your character or physical appearance. Haha it's terrifying. Or they just call you Polish, which is rascist and horrible but also slightly humorous to me. But mostly awful.

I also had an interview with President Boswell that made me 99% sure that I'm staying in Vilnius. He said that my area will be needing the skill set that I'm learning to cultivate in the very near future...so, I mean, that's pretty clear. Haha Sister Weaver thinks she's going to Klaipeda.

Last week's FHE was so funny. Genadi and Svyetlana and Karl were the only people who came but it was the best. We played mafia, and Karl is a hoot in pretty much any situation you put him in. Genadi is also hilarious--I wish I could explain to you how funny it was to play games with them but it just kind of gets lost in translation. I don't know how to tell funny stories that happen in Russian in English, if you get what I'm saying.
My gosh my brain is just exploding with this lady screaming warbled
Lithuanian in my ear, haha I'm sorry. I feel like this whole email is illiterate.

Anyways, my interview with President Boswell was a good learning experience. We were talking about our potential as missionaries, and more broadly about our potential as people in general. I had told him that I've heard so many missionaries who've been out for a long time or who were preparing to go home say that they felt like they came on their missions to do simple things like make peoples' days by smiling at them or having a nice conversation. They always say it like it's their calling not to baptize but to just make a good name for the Church. I asked President Boswell how to balance that attitude with the idea that we're supposed to focus and put all of our energy into baptisms and making sure that we get them. I guess it's been a grey area for me because it always seemed insincere to focus on getting people baptized rather than just making sure that we help them change their lives. But what he said was the perfect answer for me. He told me that Satan's way of getting to followers of Christ is by convincing them that they are only here to do good; that they don't need to strive for the extraordinary. He is so good at getting us comfortable with where we're at and making us think that it's enough to just be good. I'm not saying this in a discouraging way--I hope it doesn't come off like that. I'm just saying that there are two perspectives: One is Heavenly Fathers; that we are not only capable of great things but that we need to be actively striving to become the absolute best possible version of ourselves. The other is Satan's; that progression can stop or slow down when we feel that we are making positive changes. That's just stupid, quite frankly. Why shouldn't we try to develop all of the gifts that we were born with? If I was born a nice person, why wouldn't I strive to develop the gift to inspire kindness in others? We can always, always, alwaysexpand on the goodness in us. That's what's kind of fun about us as eternal beings--there's no end to our potential for greatness! So get started. Pray to know how you can strengthen your gifts as well as your weaknesses. 

Anyways, I hope that you're all doing great. Sorry this is a short one. Hopefully I have lots of exciting news for my next email about where I'm going, but probs not. Haha LOVE YOU!

-Sister Gooch